Monday 4 June 2012 01.28 EDT
First published on Monday 4 June 2012 01.28 EDT

Rockets fired from a US drone killed between eight and 15 people in north-west Pakistan on Monday, officials have said in varying accounts. It is the third strike in as many days after attacks on Saturday and Sunday killed a total of 12 people.

The latest strike targeted a militant hideout in the Hesokhel village of the North Waziristan tribal region, officials said.

US drones hit targets in the South Waziristan tribal region on Saturday and Sunday. There have been a total of seven strikes in less than two weeks.

The US and Pakistan are deadlocked in difficult negotiations for the reopening of overland supply routes to Nato forces in Afghanistan. No breakthrough is in sight.

The latest attack followed closely on the heels of another drone strike on Sunday that killed 10 suspected militants. Two Pakistani intelligence officials said in that attack, four missiles were fired at targets in the village of Mana Raghzai in South Waziristan near the border with Afghanistan.

At the time of the attack, suspected militants were gathered to offer condolences to the brother of a militant commander killed during another drone strike on Saturday. The brother was one of those who died in the Sunday morning strike.

On Sunday, gunmen killed four Shia minority Muslims, a police officer and a bystander in a busy market of south-western Pakistani city of Quetta, said police officer Abdul Wahid, who added that the killings had a sectarian motive.